Neil deGrasse Tyson: 35 Ways Our Lives Have Changed in the Modern Era
December 02, 2014
Neil deGrasse Tyson's Twitter account took a nostalgic turn last Friday, when the 56-year-old astrophysicist posted a series of tweets with the hashtag #WhenIWasYourAge in which he reflected on how things have changed since his childhood.
"I’m feeling pensive and reflective of years gone by," Tyson wrote on Twitter before posting the tweets. "If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share some of these observations."
Check out all of Tyson's 35 #WhenIWasYourAge tweets below.
#WhenIWasYourAge: None of my toothpaste tubes could stand up on their caps.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417205338.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Anything wrapped in plastic was easy to open.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417205350.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Pluto was a planet, but those "in the know" all knew its days were numbered.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417205714.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: It took a whole hour to bake a potato.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417205885.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: It took a week to learn whether your photos came out okay.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417206069.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: We had to open all doors by ourselves. None of them knew we were coming.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417206424.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Being "all thumbs" meant you were clumsy. Today it means you’re good at texting.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417206675.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: You had to actually get off your butt, and approach the TV to change the channel.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417206841.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: There were hardly any one-way streets.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417207028.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: People were skinnier.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417207212.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Your expected age of death was much closer to your age of retirement.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417207395.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: We went to the Moon -- nine times. Today, in low Earth-Orbit, we boldly go where hundreds have gone before.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417207568.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: The meat in a fast-food Hamburger was as large as the Bun itself.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417207750.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: You knew where & when the constellations could be found in the sky by using your “Brain App”.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417207922.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: My car got seven miles per gallon. With a tail-wind.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417208103.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: We used large Maps made of paper, and none of us could ever re-fold them back the way they came.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417208223.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: When you fell off the monkey-bars in the playground you landed on cement.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417208421.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: The average Watermelon had a Billion seeds in it.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417208765.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Before Xerox copiers, we all got high in elementary school by smelling mimeograph ink.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417208952.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Earth's daily rotation was about a half a millisecond faster than today.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417209126.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: On average, the Moon was about 1.5 meters closer to Earth than it is today.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417209303.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: We made phone calls in Phone Booths, which is also where Superman occasionally changed his clothes.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417209484.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Your home telephone could drop to the floor thousands of times and never break.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417209669.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: No matter what they contained, Bottles were not squeezable.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417209841.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Airplanes were so loud, you had to pause your conversation whenever one flew overhead.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417210025.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: People were never "living with their disease". We cured them. Or they died from it.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417210213.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: PaulSimon wrote this pre-GlobalWarming lyric "The autumn winds blow chilly & cold, September I'll remember”— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417210392.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: We actually used a sheet of paper laced with carbon to make a carbon copy — “the cc:" -- of a Letter.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417210565.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: There were ten known asteroids with orbits crossing Earth's. Now, we know more than ten-thousand.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417210743.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: You needed a can opener to open a can of beer. And you’d put two holes in it. The second, for air flow.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417211112.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: There was hardly any transparent plastic.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417210934.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Looking up somebody's number in the Phone Book was only one of a dozen household uses for it.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417211284.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: The Soviet KGB would’ve killed for the surveillance & checkpoint measures that are common in the USA today— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417211470.0
#WhenIWasYourAge: Religion was taught in Sunday School, not in your Science Classroom.— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@Neil deGrasse Tyson)1417212013.0
